Archive for February, 2010

I wanted to tell you my recent story with five tickets. I walked out of my house one afternoon to go to work and my car was gone. I thought it had been stolen, but in fact after an hour on the phone being transferred and put on hold by the police department, I was told my car was not stolen, but in fact was in the impound for having multiple parking violations.

Our lovely governor started a new program called H.P.V meaning habitual parking violators! They do not boot cars anymore! My cousins friend works for the city and says they will not boot anymore, only tow because the city makes more money. If you do not get your car out immediately the fees start racking up daily. I had two old tickets I did not know about from an old address and three here in Venice making me meet the required violator standards and get towed! It cost me $1,036 plus wage loss from trying to go pay the tickets across town before 5pm and then get to the tow yard with proof of payment. On top they don’t tell you that you need your registration when paying off the tickets, so then you have to go back to the tow yard to get your registration out of the glove box. This took a total of three days seeing as the took my car in the afternoon I was unable to do anything after 5pm.

The best thing to do my cousins friend said is check every three months. What a bummer.

Los Angeles city officials say they would like to give cars “the boot” after owners rack up three or four unpaid parking tickets, instead of five as the law requires now.

The idea is outlined in the city’s proposed 2009-10 State Legislative Program, which it plans to submit to the Legislature to show its support for a bill that would change the current state vehicle code by reducing the number of unpaid parking citations required before a vehicle may be impounded.

The proposal is now in the hands of L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, whose approval for the legislative recommendations is needed by Feb. 1.

In cases where five or more tickets are outstanding, Los Angeles applies the wheel-locking device called the Denver boot, or impounds the car until the tickets are paid. But that number is “unacceptably high” and is an “overly lenient policy that discourages vehicle owners from paying their parking citations in a timely manner,” according to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.

The threat of being given the boot after just three or four unpaid parking tickets would make owners more likely to pay their citations on time, increasing the amount of parking fines collected by the city, the department’s analysts said.

It would also bring more money to the city through impounding and booting fees. The city collects $19 million with the current parking code. If the number of parking citations is reduced to four, the city would increase its funds by nearly $26 million. If it is reduced to three, the change would result in an additional $61 million.